Happy 75th Birthday Charlie Rose

Today is the 75th birthday of the journalist Charlie Rose. His PBS show has exposed and educated me more than I could ever explain. I have ‘met’ so many inspirational people through him. The world is a better place because he is in it.

BEST KNOWN FOR: Charlie Rose is an American journalist who hosts the PBS interview show Charlie Rose. He has also held prominent broadcast roles at NBC and CBS.

Journalist Charles Peete Rose, Jr. was born on January 5, 1942, in Henderson, North Carolina. After graduating from high school, Rose entered Duke University as a premed student. During college, an internship with a senator got Rose interested in politics, and he eventually earned an A.B. in history and a J.D. from Duke’s School of Law.

With little interest in becoming a lawyer, Rose started taking classes at NYU’s Graduate School of Business in 1968. Though he accepted a job at Bankers Trust, business also failed to hold his interest. At the time, his wife was doing research for CBS’ 60 Minutes, and Rose became intrigued with the world of broadcast journalism. In 1972, he landed his first reporting job with New York’s WPIX-TV.

In 1974, Rose met Bill Moyers at a social event, and soon after he began working at PBS as the managing editor of Bill Moyers’ International Report. The team had fantastic chemistry and in 1975, Rose became executive producer of Bill Moyers’ Journal. The following year, Rose became the correspondent for U.S.A.: People and Politics, Moyers’ weekly political magazine. “A Conversation with Jimmy Carter,” one installment of that series, won a 1976 Peabody Award.

When Moyers left PBS in 1976, Rose accepted the post of political correspondent for NBC News, based in Washington, D.C. There, he hosted numerous interview shows. In 1979, he was hired by KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth to do a talk show that eventually developed into The Charlie Rose Show.

In 1981, The Charlie Rose Show moved to Washington, D.C., where it was broadcast on the NBC-owned station WRC-TV. Two years later, CBS hired Rose to anchor Nightwatch, which was broadcast during the middle-of-the-night timeslot (2 a.m. – 6 a.m.). He hosted the show for six years and earned an Emmy Award in 1987 for his interview with Charles Manson.

In 1990, Rose left CBS to serve as anchor of Personalities, which ended soon after Rose discovered the tabloid nature of the program. Nearly a year later, he approached PBS to produce an interview show of his own. Charlie Rose debuted in 1991, and was syndicated nationally in 1993.

Every weekday from 11 p.m. to midnight on PBS, Rose engages America’s best thinkers, writers, politicians, athletes, entertainers, business leaders, scientists and other newsmakers. His signature round oak table and black backdrop have become television icons to his legions of fans. In addition, Rose launched Charlie Rose Special Edition, which profiles such prominent entertainers as Meryl Streep and Garth Brooks, as well as week-long specials on science news like the Human Genome Project. He also hosts a series called Great Masters, which takes an in-depth look at the lives and works of various artists. In addition, he is a correspondent for 60 Minutes II.

Rose was married to Mary King from 1968 to 1980, and currently resides in New York.